Question : T40 moving to Linux

[DrThinkpad]

I got tired of WinRot and such... I would like to try to make the move to linux with my T40.

My needs :

Browsing (with Java), chatting, office work (Open Office ?), listening to music/movies, YouTube, streaming TV, and connecting to a WPA2 protected network.

My concerns :

Finding all the software I need to meet my needs, find out if the distro I want (BackTrack v4 (Slackware distro)) can work on my T40, and find a way to make my F5D8013 Belkin PCMCIA wireless card work (remember I need to connect to a WPA2 network, which my 2100b card doesn't support). I don't know much about linux yet. I have yet to learn the basic commands and even to get it to recognize the parts of the laptop (drivers ?)

The old workhorse :

ThinkPad T40, PM 1.5ghz, 1.5 gb of RAM, Radeon 7500, 40gb 5400RPM Hitachi HD, 2100b/F5D8013 wireless, XGA screen.

So, what do you guys think about this ?

Thanks in advance !

[Harryc]

The driver for your Belkin card (Ralink chipset) has been included in the mainline kernel since 2.6.29, so it should work out of the box with a newer distro.

[ThinkRob]

the distro I want (BackTrack v4 (Slackware distro))

I would be willing to bet that this is *not* the distro you want. BackTrack is not exactly a desktop distro... the tasks you listed would be much better accomplished with a desktop-oriented distribution.

[ajkula66]

FWIW, I've recently set up an A22p with a Belkin wireless card for a friend of mine, running Linux Mint and the card worked just fine.

Mint would generally be my suggestion, I've been running it in a variety of guises on both A31p and T4x machines for a couple of years now, and am very pleased with it. Please bear in mind that I'm not a Linux guru like Harry and a couple of others on this forum by any stretch of imagination.

On a whole different note, you may want to upgrade your wireless card, $15 and fifteen minutes can save you from having to use an external card altogether.

Burn a "live" disk from here and give it a shot:

http://www.linuxmint.com

Good luck.

[t140568]

As for "Streaming TV". With Hulu, Youtube, and most other flash-based video sites, you should be fine. I recently used my very similar R50 to watch Hulu full screen without problem. It does seem to be at the edge of what the machine's capable of, but it worked. Doing higher resolutions like 720p were a no-go for me. Netflix, AFAIK, does not work with Linux at the moment. There may be work-arounds, but I have yet to successfully get one to work around.

For listening to music, I find Rhythmbox to suit my needs well. Amarok, and Audacious (VERY WinAMP 2.0-ish) are also very capable players, each with its own pros/cons.

LinuxMint, Ubuntu, and Mandriva have all worked really well for me. Ubuntu and LinuxMint are undoubtedly my favs of all Linux distros - especially when you're just starting.

[PizzaandWine]

I'll through crunchbang linux into the ring of very good ubuntu-derived distros. It's got most of the user-friendliness of Ubuntu, but its selection of programs is much more lightweight than ubuntu's. This makes it especially quick on older hardware.

[DrThinkpad]

Next questions : how does the OS recognize the laptop's part ? Are there any kind of "drivers" ? I'll forget about BackTrack... but I do want a good looking OS though, the rest doesn't matter much as long as it fills my needs... so a good-looking yet not power-hungry distro is probably what I need (can we change Ubuntu's/Mint's looks as I do with XP when integrating new skins into the msstyles folder ?) ... suggestions ?

[t140568]

Next questions : how does the OS recognize the laptop's part ? Are there any kind of "drivers" ? I'll forget about BackTrack... but I do want a good looking OS though, the rest doesn't matter much as long as it fills my needs... so a good-looking yet not power-hungry distro is probably what I need (can we change Ubuntu's/Mint's looks as I do with XP when integrating new skins into the msstyles folder ?) ... suggestions ?

AFAIK, you shouldn't need any separate "drivers" as it should pretty much all be built into the kernel. For my similar R50, it was 1) boot from the disc, 2) go through the simple guided install process 3) reboot and enjoy. However, sometimes there are drivers available from the manufacturers which may enable more features not available with the open source drivers. Only one that ever popped up for me was my video driver from ATI - and even that stopped happening since Ubuntu 9.04 (I think).

As for customizing Ubuntu/Mint or any other Linux distro, you can probably make more customizations in Linux than in Windows. Ubuntu (under System>Preference>Appearance gives you a handful of themes to choose from and customize to your liking. More are available in the repository via Synaptic Package manager as well as sites like http://www.gnome-look.org/ or if you decided to use KDE instead of Gnome, http://www.kde-look.org/. At either site there are themes for just about everything. If the basic themes aren't to your liking, you can always do the whole cube/compiz thing as well.

Options and customize-ability are two things you are definitely not short of in Linux.

[ajkula66]

Mint (and likely Ubuntu) will recognize all of the hardware on a T40 out of the box. And yes, you can tweak it in a somewhat similar manner when it comes to appearance...

[Superego]

(can we change Ubuntu's/Mint's looks as I do with XP when integrating new skins into the msstyles folder ?) ... suggestions ?

The amount of customization blows Windows away. I'd point to you to GnomeLook or KDELook, depending on which desktop environment you choose. There are also similar sites for DEs like Fluxbox, Openbox, etc.

[DrThinkpad]

Last questions : Will I get a substantial gain on speed over Win XP ? Am I done with WinRot ? I don't know any commands yet, so is there such a thing as a wallpaper that has all the basic commands that I need to learn ? That'd be VERY useful

http://nuovext.pwsp.net/images/screensh ... -GNOME.jpg That's a look I'd like to have on my ThinkPad What are the advantages/disadvantages of Mint over Ubuntu ?

Also, how do I install a program on Linux ? Never used it except on a LiveCD to mount a drive and recover files... I need to figure this one out

Next the list of applications I'll have to install to fit my needs :

- Firefox
- OOo/Open Office... which one should I choose ?
- VLC for Linux
- Instant messaging (I need a client that displays my picture and can save my conversations)
- Wine of course

On a whole different note, you may want to upgrade your wireless card, $15 and fifteen minutes can save you from having to use an external card altogether.

Would absolutely love to, but the only thing I ever replaced on my T40 are the RAM and the HD... I'm a total hardware noob. Is the 2200bg WPA2 capable ? What about the 2915abg ? Since I already have a 2100b card, I assume I wouldn't have to change the antenna ?

Thanks to everyone for helping me !

[Superego]

I don't know any commands yet, so is there such a thing as a wallpaper that has all the basic commands that I need to learn ?

I'd start by checking Google for Linux tutorials or cheat sheets. You'll probably want to learn some basic commands for moving around/using the filesystem, learn abou root vs. user, and the basics of the Linux filesystem.

Lowfat Linux might be a good place to start.

http://nuovext.pwsp.net/images/screensh ... -GNOME.jpg That's a look I'd like to have on my ThinkPad

Gnome-look that I posted above has everything you'll need to theme your DE to look like a Mac. Again, I'd check out Google for a quick guide to theming in Linux. A lot depends on which distro you're using, but basically here's what you're looking to configure:

Style/Theme: The overall theme; things like buttons, scrollboxes, etc.
Icons: There's a million different themes you can install. Looks like the one in your screenshot is called nuvoeXT2
Window: The border (you can get the Mac button style....3 circles, red, yellow, green)
Color schemes & fonts: self-explanatory

If you're looking at the Mac-like themes I'd recommend searching for something called mac4lin. It's a guide that will step you through everything you need to make your desktop look like a mac.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of Mint over Ubuntu ?

It's been a while since I used Ubuntu and I've never used Mint. Judging by what I've read, there's not much difference. Mint comes pre-installed with media codecs & flash, but that's easy to get in Ubuntu. Mint has a different look that I think a lot of people like, and each comes pre-installed with slightly different system management tools and customized menus.

Also, how do I install a program on Linux ? Never used it except on a LiveCD to mount a drive and recover files... I need to figure this one out

This is one the coolest features. A lot of people unfamiliar with Linux assume you have compile everything from source. You can if you want, but all of the major distros have a package management system that o automates installing and removing software, and evens pulls in all of the required software. For example, I use ArchLinux and if I wanted to install VLC I would just open up a terminal and type

Code: Select all

pacman -S vlc

pacman is ArchLinux's package manager. In Ubuntu:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install vlc

You'll want to learn about sudo if you don't know already. Whichever distro you decide on, you'll want to read up on to use its package manager. Also, while you can do all of this via the command line, most (all?) of the distros have some form of graphical front-end.

Next the list of applications I'll have to install to fit my needs :

Sorry, but I thought OOo and OpenOffice were the same. I've been happy with using OpenOffice.
I don't use IM, but I know Pigdin and Kopete are fairly popular.

Hope that gets you started!

[DrThinkpad]

Sorry, but I thought OOo and OpenOffice were the same. I've been happy with using OpenOffice.

Oops, that's because of one my cousins had something called OOo4Kids on my uncle's laptop

Two last concerns :

What about a partition manager, and a wireless manager ?

[Neil]

Most every...well every distribution that I know of, has a partition manager and a wireless network manager built in. You should be good to go right after installing.

[t140568]

Last questions : Will I get a substantial gain on speed over Win XP ?

Like you wouldn't believe. Bootups, program launches, and overall system responsiveness in my experience blows Windows out of the water here.

Am I done with WinRot ?

Really, this is entirely up to you. I've been using linux nearly exclusively for about the last three years, yet go back to Windows for Netflix and the small handful of games I play. I keep it around "just in case".

I don't know any commands yet, so is there such a thing as a wallpaper that has all the basic commands that I need to learn ? That'd be VERY useful

Not only are there cheat sheets, there's cheat shirts printed appropriately so you can read them while wearing them.

[DrThinkpad]

Now dual booting Ubuntu/XP. Things left to learn : messing with power options (when I close the lid I don't want the T40 to go to sleep) and how to install a program

[KevinTC]

After my T40 was hacked 3 times when running Windows Xp changed to Linux about 12 months ago. I had been playing with few Linux distros before that and plumped for Ubuntu - I had put that on my old T22 before I gave it to an old friend (a 68 year old) so he could write some memoirs. He loves it!
Back to my T40, its not quite standard having a WD1200BEVE drive installed in it -120G and works great; BIOS just ran it like a native. 2G of memory keeps it very fast for it's age.
I partitioned and formated the hard disk using Gparted on Ubuntu live distro then made it dual boot - yes, Ubuntu as the primary (1st boot option) and Win Xp as the other - Window needed 'cause I still need some Windows tools for work.
The install of Ubuntu was Jaunty Jackalope and it worked straight out of the box - even the cell phone HUAWEI modem. The built in antivirus, Clam, never pick up problems with linux partition but found some dirt in the Windows partition - yes it scans across both partitions. Now it's upgraded to Karmic Koala no problem.

Comparing the Windows Xp and the Ubuntu is a no contest the linux runs faster, plus it is so secure and stable.
I am sure you will soon get the hang of it as everything is well documented and there are thousands of helpful folk just a email or forum away. It feel just like the old days of surfing the net - before malware ate it.